Best commercial beer

[trueblue]

Best beer ever was Green King Abbot ale circa 1970's to the mid 1980's. Unfortunately they had a fire at the brewery and lost their yeast. Like most brewery's they had a sample stored in deep freeze at national yeast bank but the beer has never been the same since and may take another 20 years or so to get back to the same level. A good lesson to us brewers that yeast is the most important ingredient we use.

Modern day beer - Timothy Taylor Landlord when kept properly. We spent 4 days at a pub about 12 miles from the brewery and it was sex in a glass.

 

[Tanzanite]

I was in Prague 4 weeks ago and fell in love with a pub called U-Fleku which brewed its own dark lager. It's classified as a Dunkel and I've found a recipe for it but it's beyond my capabilities atm. I looked into similar styles of the beer and the closest I could find to it in kit form is a Bock Beer which I bottled 3 days ago. I'll now experiment with the Bock and see if I can tweak it into something similar.

Real Ale is a rarity in Northern Ireland, a few pubs stock it but most pubs are out of my way. I generally drink Guinness when I'm out and about but I do like to sample new things.

Off licence, I discovered a Dark Chocolate Stout which is delicious and the bottles come in handy for my own brews.

Glentoranmark Did you know there are no bad pints of Guinness just some are better than others :lol:

 

[FiremanSam]

Sainsburys do Celebration Ale each winter, a 6% stout from Black Sheep in Masham. That and Lee's Manchester Star Ale are always on my shopping list there.

Re M&S beers, I managed to pick up 40 bottles of the Cornish 6 Malt Stout (Mena Dhu rebadged) and it worked out at under £1 a 500ml bottle delivered! Think they cocked up the pricing, and there was also 25% off plus some vouchers. Sadly they have changed the price now, sorry!

 

[daddymonkey]

years ago would be Batemans XXXB, but I find this a bit fruity nowadays. I love TT Landlord, or Guiness West Indies Stout.

Anyone else like Bateman's Dark Lord? Discovered this one recently when Asda restarted 4 for £5. beer-pages.com had it as beer of the month a few years ago, not sure I recognise their description of it, but they might be right cos I can't put my finger (tongue?) on the flavour (I'm pretty much a rank beginner brewer).

 

[IrishH]

I am recently back from Seattle who have, what can only be desribed as the mother of all beer selections! Luckily my friend who I stayed with is a beer lover also. We ventured from brewery to brewery (most seem to just set up pubs within breweries, didnt go to any actual pubs!) and experienced some outstanding beers. The only negative was the overwhelming amount of carbonated ales. My favourites were;

Pike Brewing - Space Needle IPA
Hellbent Brewey - Big Island Toasted Coconut Stout / Funky Red Patina Red Ale / DANG! Citra IPA

Also currently enjoying the beer coming out of Vocation Brewery.

 

[Tinto]

Wye Valley Bitter. A trully great sesion bitter, well ballanced sub 4% ABV drunk it all day long!:-)

 

[pms67]

Anyone tried these?

 

[pms67]

This is defo my new favourite

 

[CraftyZA]

How do you define commercial?

If it is big breweries, then
Hertog Jan Grand prestige. Brewed by ab inbev, in the netherlands.

If commercial independents counts you have me. I freaking love em all.
Should i list them? All of the dark sweet varieties of all the Trappist breweries.
De molen's tsarina esra(dutch) thus far my favorite beer of all time.
Gouden carolus(i can drink gallons)
Gouden draak
Lucifer
All the trappist tripples
Most barley wines.
Hertog jan tripple
Hertog jan dubbel
Had a fantastic barlywine from spain, (avant garde) but the second time i had it it was not that great. Tasted like church mass wine. Ie cheap muscadel.

 

[dad_of_jon]

How do you define commercial?

If it is big breweries, then
Hertog Jan Grand prestige. Brewed by ab inbev, in the netherlands.

If commercial independents counts you have me. I freaking love em all.
Should i list them? All of the dark sweet varieties of all the Trappist breweries.
De molen's tsarina esra(dutch) thus far my favorite beer of all time.
Gouden carolus(i can drink gallons)
Gouden draak
Lucifer
All the trappist tripples
Most barley wines.
Hertog jan tripple
Hertog jan dubbel
Had a fantastic barlywine from spain, (avant garde) but the second time i had it it was not that great. Tasted like church mass wine. Ie cheap muscadel.

Hertog jan karakter is a nice drop too.

 

[pms67]

How do you define commercial?

If it is big breweries, then
Hertog Jan Grand prestige. Brewed by ab inbev, in the netherlands.

If commercial independents counts you have me. I freaking love em all.
Should i list them? All of the dark sweet varieties of all the Trappist breweries.
De molen's tsarina esra(dutch) thus far my favorite beer of all time.
Gouden carolus(i can drink gallons)
Gouden draak
Lucifer
All the trappist tripples
Most barley wines.
Hertog jan tripple
Hertog jan dubbel
Had a fantastic barlywine from spain, (avant garde) but the second time i had it it was not that great. Tasted like church mass wine. Ie cheap muscadel.

i should have titled this thread best bottled store bought beer?

 

[CraftyZA]

i should have titled this thread best bottled store bought beer?

In that case: de molen's tsarina esra.
I did not buy it in a store, but a friend that went the the Netherlands picks it up there

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I had a couple of bottles of this last night and will be buying again.

Hawkshead Brewery - Lakeland Gold.

4.4% Cask, Keg & Bottle

A refreshing, well hopped, fruity and bitter Golden Ale with complex fruit flavours from the blending of English hop, First Gold, with the outrageously fruity American hop, Cascade. A hopheads' beer... with balance. A real beer drinkers beer.

CAMRA Cumbria Beer of the Year 2014, Silver medal, Best Bitters
SIBA National 2014 Keg Bitters Pales & Golden Ales Bronze
CAMRA Champion Best Bitter of Cumbria 2009 - 2012
SIBA North, Best Bottled Beer, 3 times in 5 years

 

[Tanzanite]

I was in Prague 4 weeks ago and fell in love with a pub called U-Fleku which brewed its own dark lager. It's classified as a Dunkel and I've found a recipe for it but it's beyond my capabilities atm. I looked into similar styles of the beer and the closest I could find to it in kit form is a Bock Beer which I bottled 3 days ago. I'll now experiment with the Bock and see if I can tweak it into something similar.

Real Ale is a rarity in Northern Ireland, a few pubs stock it but most pubs are out of my way. I generally drink Guinness when I'm out and about but I do like to sample new things.

Off licence, I discovered a Dark Chocolate Stout which is delicious and the bottles come in handy for my own brews.

Theres no bad Guiness only some pints are better than others :thumb:

 

[Leemond]

Having previously listed York Brewery's "Guzzler" as my favourite ever, "Snowflake" has taken over. It's incredible... http://www.york-brewery.co.uk/user_uploads/monthly specials/snowflaketn.pdf

 

[Ale]

Can I add a notable contender for the WORST commercial beer. Anything from the Sainsburys Taste the Difference range. I've tried the Westmorand Ale and ended up throwing half of it away because I really did not enjoy drinking it and the IPA, which was nearly as bad.

 

[Godsdog]

had a sadlers thin ice for the first time last week,bottled and was beautiful with the exception of their Worcester sorcerer they make bloody lovely ales
ps was £1.25 from B&M well worth it

 

[Ajhutch]

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is my favourite commercial beer. It's not the most exciting beer ever, but it means a lot to me. It was my first real exposure to hoppy American style craft beer, I drank (lots of) it on the night before my wedding, and when we did a west cost of America road trip I found it to be even more delicious (it's probably fresher). I don't drink it super often any more but now and again I can't resist picking one up.

 

[pms67]

Can I add a notable contender for the WORST commercial beer. Anything from the Sainsburys Taste the Difference range. I've tried the Westmorand Ale and ended up throwing half of it away because I really did not enjoy drinking it and the IPA, which was nearly as bad.

Probably worth starting a thread?

 

[pms67]

Anyone had Grozet from the Williams Bros ? Very drinkable